ARK, Govett Funds Merge

Two fund groups whose advisers are owned by Irish Allied Bank of Dublin, Ireland have merged. Four funds offered by Govett Funds of San Francisco have been merged into four funds offered by ARK Funds of Oaks, Pa., the companies announced last week.

The four Govett Funds were advised by AIB Govett of San Franciso and had a total of $97 million in assets under management, according to the company. The four ARK funds that merged with the Govett funds are advised by Allied Investment Advisers of Baltimore, Md., and have a combined $6.5 billion in assets under management.

The firms decided to merge the funds to improve efficiency, according to Michele Dalton, project manager of the ARK Funds. With the great disparity in asset size between the two groups of funds it "didn't make sense" for the Govett funds to operate separately, said Dalton.

AIB Govett will manage the ARK Emerging Markets Equity Portfolio and the ARK International Equity Portfolio. These two funds absorbed the Govett Emerging Markets Equity Fund and the Govett International Equity Fund. Allied Investment Advisors will manage the ARK Small-Cap Equity Portfolio and the ARK Income Portfolio, which absorbed the Govett Smaller Companies Portfolio and the Govett Global Income Fund.

Each adviser was selected to manage funds based on their investment experience, said Dalton.

"We will utilize ARK's U.S. equity and fixed income investment experience and Govett's international investing experience," said Dalton.

A fifth Govett fund, the Govett International Smaller Companies Fund, was not acquired and AIB Govett filed a proxy statement on Sept. 14 seeking to liquidate it. The firm wants to liquidate the fund because of a lack of shareholders and assets, according to Dalton.